Collaborate, don't fight over water

The city of Asheville and the N.C. General Assembly seem determined to square off in an ugly slugfest over control of the city's water system.

The city brought this nasty fight on itself. Its past arrogance toward Buncombe County and its shabby treatment of neighboring Henderson County may have seemed politic at the time, but politics change.

Now the city faces the loss of its water system through legislative fiat.

Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, says he plans to introduce a bill to mandate the transfer of the water system to the Metropolitan Sewerage District by the end of this month.

The failure of leadership on the part of City Council members is surpassed, however, by the shortsightedness of House members who support this effort.

It's probably true that, as the League of Municipalities argues, forcibly taking Asheville's water system will have a chilling effect on local governments' investment in infrastructure. Giving cities an incentive not to maintain their infrastructure is not the way to attract high-quality, high-paying jobs to North Carolina.

But a bigger problem is not giving cities the means to maintain their infrastructure and plan for its efficient expansion as they grow.

State lawmakers' assault on cities, from an attempt to eliminate for all practical purposes their ability to annex to threatening to take over their assets, is folly unless cities are given alternative tools for capturing revenue and establishing land-use regulations that discourage inefficient sprawl.

For many towns, water systems provide a way to manage growth and a revenue stream from people who use city services but don't live there. Cities need a way to garner enough revenue to maintain an infrastructure that gets people where they need to go and provides them with water, sewer, fire and police protection whether they live in the city or just work, shop or recreate there.

Cities need to be able to do that without taxing residents to the point that they simply move outside the city limits where, in the mountains, at least, even counties that would like to plan for development to make the most efficient use of tax dollars face intense opposition from landowners resistant to the inevitable change that comes with growth.

We've seen urban decay. We know it blights not only the landscape, but a region's economic prospects and its people's lives. Healthy cities are economic engines. Cities with failing infrastructure and decaying residential areas are not attractive places to live, work, raise a family or visit.

The future of North Carolina's cities is far more important than the squabbles over differential water rates and "unique history" that have animated the controversy over control of Asheville's water system.

But to Western North Carolina, there are few concerns more important than how to best manage the precious water resources in the French Broad River Basin. The French Broad and its tributaries flow through Transylvania, Henderson, Buncombe and Madison counties and ultimately into the Mississippi River.

Moffitt and his supporters have made no persuasive argument that another entity would be more efficient at managing Asheville's water or that there are any great benefits of a "regional" system. That may be because it would not, in fact, be a regional water system.

There are 16 public water supplies in the French Broad River Basin.

An argument could be made for some sort of regional authority that would bring together representatives of all these municipalities to speak up for their interests as decisions are made about this shared resource. To be successful, the move to create such an authority would require thoughtful consideration about how it should be structured, months or years of planning and buy-in from the parties involved. Hendersonville, for one, has made it clear that it has no desire to be part of a regional authority.

But we can't see that a truly regional authority is what Moffitt has in mind.

He and his supporters have given us little reason to see this as anything other than a legislative arrow aimed toward what has admittedly been an arrogant and uncooperative city. That's a poor excuse for public policy. What's worse, it sets a potentially disastrous precedent.

That said, Moffitt deserves credit for making water a top-of-mind issue. For now, those of us in the French Broad River Basin are blessed with adequate water, but North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, and population pressure is already taxing water supplies in some parts of the state.

It would be foolhardy to take our water resources for granted. The region will be way ahead if municipal leaders and lawmakers establish a new tone for dealing with water issues, one of collaboration instead of conflict.

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Collaborate, don't fight over water

The city of Asheville and the N.C. General Assembly seem determined to square off in an ugly slugfest over control of the city's water system.